142 The Water-fowl Family 



in the Southern states. Occasionally there has 

 been quite a spring flight through Illinois and 

 the adjacent states, numbers finding their way to 

 Chicago markets. In Maine and Massachusetts 

 the ring-neck is sometimes taken. In southern 

 New England it is rare ; and the writer knows of 

 but two specimens killed in Connecticut : one was 

 an adult male shot in the winter of 1886 in a small 

 pond near New Haven, the other a young male 

 killed on Lake Saltonstall, December, 1900. 

 South it is more abundant, and on the large 

 sounds off Virginia and North Carolina a few are 

 shot, although the inland rivers and ponds seem 

 to be their favorite abode. In Georgia, Florida, 

 and along the Gulf of Mexico the ring-neck is 

 found in small flocks. 



The breeding-ground is in the far North, but 

 the bird has been found on our northern border, 

 in Dakota and other of the Western states, and in 

 Maine, in the vicinity of Calais, by Mr. George 

 Boardman. Here in the summer of 1884 he took 

 a nest with eleven eggs. It was placed among 

 the reeds and thick grass on the banks of the St. 

 Croix River, and was constructed of grass without 

 down. The birds appear within the United States 

 early in November, and while going far south, a 

 few stay through the winter in the Northern states 

 until the last ice holes freeze. They are seen in 

 small flocks of from six to twelve, keeping pretty 



